After a slight dip last week, the price for a gallon of diesel has skyrocketed.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (US EIA) weekly report states that the national average price for a gallon of diesel rose from $5.599 to $5.967.
All reporting regions rose by at least 21 cents per gallon in the last week.
According to Wednesday morning reporting from the Associated Press, the price of oil surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time since July after attacks on oil facilities and ships in the Middle East threatened to debilitate an already weakened supply chain.
Brent crude, the international standard, jumped nearly 3% to $100.72 early Wednesday.
U.S. benchmark crude gained 2.4% to $95.25 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices rose sharply overnight.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline ticked up 7 cents overnight to hit $4.22, now more than a dollar above what it cost at this point last year, according to AAA.
Diesel prices, which can have an outsized impact on consumers because it is used in shipping and production, hit an all-time high Friday and has continued to climb since. The average price for a gallon reached $5.94 overnight and is now 9 cents higher than it was Friday.
The largest leap in price came from the California Region which hiked up by more than 54 and a half cents from $7.218 to $7.764. The California price per gallon is more than $3 higher than it was two years ago, and $2.80 higher than last year.
The Central Atlantic Region represented the smallest increase from $5.838 to $6.051, a 21-cent increase.
AP reported that “crude oil prices shot up after Israel and the United States initiated a war with Iran, and they have fluctuated considerably during the more than six months since then. The fighting has halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began.”
AP added that brent traded between about $70 to $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May. In July, prices swung between $72 and $102, reflecting rising and falling hopes that the U.S. and Iran would agree on a plan that would allow stranded tankers to move oil safely out of the Persian Gulf.
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
